FBI Nails 400 Mortgage Fraudsters, Bear Stearns Indictments
The game’s over for 406 mortgage fraud defendants. The FBI’s Operation “Malicious Mortgage” ended yesterday after three months of investigating 144 mortgage fraud cases. It’s a sign of the times when the FBI creates special units to investigate mortgage fraud, which involves trickery to fund, purchase or insure mortgage loans.
Criminals who prey on people seeking the American dream and then leave them hanging by an unraveling thread while their own pockets swell are just bastards. Not only do they obliterate personal lives and families, their fraudulent crimes mess with our housing and credit markets and ultimately turned our economy upside down.
These crooks are sneaky smart and wear a cloak of professionalism. They're bankers, brokers, agents, your neighbor. Lending fraud involves conducting transactions based on lies about the borrower’s financial status, employment records or inflating property values. With the housing bubble bursting, foreclosure rescue scams have sky rocketed. The fraudsters contact struggling home owners and collect huge fees for fake foreclosure prevention services or convince them to sign over ownership with promises of bail outs that never happen. Both lending fraud and foreclosure scams feed into bankruptcy schemes that stay foreclosures.
Also breaking news is the federal indictment of two senior Bear Stearns Bank managers of hedge funds that tanked. Ralph Cioffi and Mathew Tannin are charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. Yay! The charges allege that the men marketed the funds backed by a pool of mortgages as low risk strategies. When they already knew the funds were at risk for collapse, they misrepresented the situation to prevent investor withdrawal. The funds did bomb and took investors for about $1.4 billion. Of course, indictments are no evidence of guilt and all are innocent until proven guilty, blah, blah, blah.
Morals of the story: 1) the Department of Justice is going after these yahoos, but investigations are very complex and lengthy; 2) always be weary of cold calls from "financial agencies" inquiring about your mortgage crisis. Do not sign any deed documents without seeking legal advice and don't pay fees up front for assistance with your debt. Work directly with your lender, instead. Beware of bastards. There are 406 less operating today, but no shortage of up and comers, I assure you.
Criminals who prey on people seeking the American dream and then leave them hanging by an unraveling thread while their own pockets swell are just bastards. Not only do they obliterate personal lives and families, their fraudulent crimes mess with our housing and credit markets and ultimately turned our economy upside down.
These crooks are sneaky smart and wear a cloak of professionalism. They're bankers, brokers, agents, your neighbor. Lending fraud involves conducting transactions based on lies about the borrower’s financial status, employment records or inflating property values. With the housing bubble bursting, foreclosure rescue scams have sky rocketed. The fraudsters contact struggling home owners and collect huge fees for fake foreclosure prevention services or convince them to sign over ownership with promises of bail outs that never happen. Both lending fraud and foreclosure scams feed into bankruptcy schemes that stay foreclosures.
Also breaking news is the federal indictment of two senior Bear Stearns Bank managers of hedge funds that tanked. Ralph Cioffi and Mathew Tannin are charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. Yay! The charges allege that the men marketed the funds backed by a pool of mortgages as low risk strategies. When they already knew the funds were at risk for collapse, they misrepresented the situation to prevent investor withdrawal. The funds did bomb and took investors for about $1.4 billion. Of course, indictments are no evidence of guilt and all are innocent until proven guilty, blah, blah, blah.Morals of the story: 1) the Department of Justice is going after these yahoos, but investigations are very complex and lengthy; 2) always be weary of cold calls from "financial agencies" inquiring about your mortgage crisis. Do not sign any deed documents without seeking legal advice and don't pay fees up front for assistance with your debt. Work directly with your lender, instead. Beware of bastards. There are 406 less operating today, but no shortage of up and comers, I assure you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 Clues:
Post a Comment